Philanthropy news of College of the Atlantic

Medeiros to use scholarship award to research lichens at contamination sites

BAR HARBOR, MAINE — A College of the Atlantic student has received two scholarships for his research on lichens and plants of serpentine outcrops at metal-contaminated sites.

Ian D. Medeiros, a third-year COA student from Rehoboth, Mass., received a $4,000 Barbara D. May Scholarship from the National Garden Club and a $1,000 scholarship from the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts to continue work he began as a student on the Bar Harbor campus under the instruction of Professor of Botany Nishanta Rajakaruna.

During the 8th International Conference on Serpentine Ecology in June in Sabah, Malaysia, Medeiros delivered an oral presentation based on his research, titled “Diversity and Conservation of Lichens at Two Metal-Enriched Sites in Coastal Maine, USA.”

Medeiros also recently secured a summer research position with the Field Museum in Chicago, where he will work on a lichen…

BAR HARBOR, MAINE — Addiction to opiates is a well-known struggle and a tragic storyline for many in Down East Maine.

Dr. Steven Kassels, M.D., a board certified physician in emergency and addiction medicine, will speak about the topic during a book signing and lecture 5 to 7 p.m. Monday, July 21 at the Thomas S. Gates Jr. Community Center on the College of the Atlantic campus.

He is author of “Addiction on Trial: Tragedy in Downeast Maine,” a fast-paced murder mystery and legal thriller set on Mount Desert Island. “An Evening With Dr. Steven Kassels” will include a brief book reading, a short talk and a Q&A followed by a catered reception in Newlin Gardens.

Kassels attended Milton Academy and Lake Forest College and received his Medical Degree from Wayne State University…

College of the Atlantic professor delivers ‘massive open online course’

BAR HARBOR, Maine — Continuing the school’s tradition of educational innovation, College of the Atlantic Professor of Physics and Mathematics Dr. David Feldman recently completed his — and perhaps Maine’s — first “Massive Open Online Course.”

The eight-week course, “Introduction to Dynamical Systems and Chaos,” drew more than 5,000 students from 90 countries, ages 13 through 80. More than 900 students completed the class, an 18% completion rate — more than three times the average for similar so-called MOOCs, according to a recent University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education study.

The course was offered through Santa Fe Institute’s Complexity Explorer Project, which provides online courses and educational materials in complex-systems science. The class was funded by a grant to the Santa Fe Institute from the John Templeton Foundation and donations from participants. The archived course is available at…

Book-length poem by Mary-Sherman Willis is part of “Coffee and Conversation”

BAR HARBOR, MAINE — Poetry will percolate in the next in a series of “Coffee and Conversation” programs at College of the Atlantic.

Mary-Sherman Willis, a writer living in Rappahannock County, Va., will join COA Professor of Writing and Literature Candice Stover, 9 to 10 a.m., Tuesday, July 22, for “Poetry in the Streets” at Deering Common Community Center. The program is free and open to the public, part of the dozens of public programs the college offers the Mount Desert Island community and guests.

Willis, who teaches creative writing at George Washington University, holds a degree in science writing from the University of Maryland and an MFA in Poetry from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers in Swannanoa, N.C. Her poems and reviews have appeared in the New Republic, The Plum Review, the Hudson Review…

I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the “isness” of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal “oughtness” that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. – Martin Luther King, Jr.